Ollech & Wajs P104 ‘Selectron’ Reintroduces Vintage Slide Rule Bezel

I must admit that as someone who has grown in the age of digital calculators, I have never had to use a slide rule. While they were common in classrooms and engineering workshops of the 60s and 70s, they’ve mostly been superseded by technology. However, one place you can still find them are slide rule bezels on watches. The most famous example of which is the Breitling Navitimer. However, another popular vintage slide rule watch was the Ollech & Wajs Selectron Computer, which OW have now revived in the form of the Ollech & Wajs P104 ‘Selectron’.

The specific vintage reference that the new watch is based on is the 1969 ‘Selectron Calculator’ Ref 004, which they produced for General Electric Co.’s aerospace engineers and test pilots. The modern ‘Selectron’ uses the same bi-directional slide rule bezel with a logarithmic scale that enables it to be used for a wide variety of calculations including ratios, percentages, unit conversions, multiplication, and division.

In terms of design, the bezel itself has quite chunky proportions in steel that gives the watch quite a utilitarian vibe that matches the tool watch vibe of the whole piece. The case measures 39.5mm x 15.8mm, making it a very tall watch on the wrist. In fact, it’s actually thicker than Vacheron Constantin’s world record 41 complication Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication La Première, which is pretty crazy. Thankfully the Ollech & Wajs P104 ‘Selectron’s robust appearance is backed up by the specs with a 300m water resistance rating.

Leaning into that good water resistance, the dial has a strong elements of dive watch design too with oversize hour markers coated with Super-LumiNova. The use of different shapes such as the triangle at 12 o’clock is also a classic element of dive watches as it allows you read the watch in any orientation by always knowing where 12 is. Adding to the readability is the fun alternating orange and black squares on the minutes hand that makes it stand out from the single block colour of the hour hand, so you instantly know which hand is which.

Beneath the dial is the Soprod Newton P092 automatic movement with 44-hour power reserve. There’s actually two versions of the movement on offer in the Ollech & Wajs P104 ‘Selectron’ as you can choose to have the standard version or upgrade it to the COSC chronometer edition. The first 56 watches in the production series will all be COSC editions and on top of that they’ll be numbered, making them an extra bit special.

Priced at CHF 1,656 (approx. £1,450) it’s actually solid value, especially the COSC version. At this level of thickness I would probably suggest trying before buying if you can, but if that’s not a problem for you, you can reserve one of the first 56 numbered editions now via the website. There’s a lot to love about the OW renaissance across the past few years.

More details at Ollech & Wajs.

​Oracle Time 

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